The Nanotech Report 2006 - Key Findings

The 2006 edition of the Nanotech Report from Lux Research was published recently. This is something I make a point to read every year, even if only a brief summary is available for free.

Some of the key findings that are noteworthy :

1) Nanotechnology R&D reached $9.6 billion in 2005, up 10% from 2004. This is unremarkable when one considers that the world economy grew 7-8% in nominal terms in 2005, but upon closer examination of the subsets of R&D, corporate R&D and venture capital grew 18% in 2005 to hit $5 billion. This means that many technologies are finally graduating from basic research laboratories and are being turned into products, and that investment in nanotechnology is now possible. This also confirms my estimation that the inflection point of commercial nanotechnology was in 2005.

But a deeper concept worth internalizing is how an extension of the Impact of Computing will manifest itself. If the quality of nanotechnology per dollar increases at the same 58% annual rate as Moore's Law (a modest assumption), combining this qualitative improvement rate with a dollar growth of 64% a year yields an effective Impact of Nanotechnology of (1.58)*(1.64) = 160% per year. As the base gets larger, this will become very visible.

3) Nanotech-enabled products on the market today command a price premium of 11% over traditional equivalents, even if the nanotechnology is not directly noticed.

That's amazing. I have a personaly theory that it's economically disadvantageous to be pessimistic about humanities future, and those who gain the most will be those who calculate the effects of coming windfalls in nanotech and biotech.

There is a Nanotech ETF called Powerlux Nanoshares, with the ticker symbol PXN. It is going to be very volatile at these early stages, so the best way to get into it is dollar-cost averaging. But it is an actual diversified mutual fund.

There is a Nanotech ETF called Powerlux Nanoshares, with the ticker symbol PXN. It is going to be very volatile at these early stages, so the best way to get into it is dollar-cost averaging. But it is an actual diversified mutual fund.